as nobody else possessed; but, where they are most evidently legendary and ridiculous, they yet come short of anything approaching to the supernatural or miraculous. When a high officer was once complimenting the disciples on the various ability of their master, Confucius said, "When I was young, my condition was low, and so I acquired my ability in many things; but they were mean matters. Must the superior man have such variety of ability? He does not need it." On the subject of his knowledge, again, he said, "I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there." When traveling with his disciples, the wanderer occasionally came across recluses, men who had withdrawn from the world in disgust, and derided him, always striving, and striving in vain, with his plans of reformation. "Than follow one who withdraws from this ruler and that, had you not better follow those who withdraw from the world altogether?" said one of those recluses to a disciple. When his words were reported to the Master, he said, "It is impossible to associate with birds and beasts. If I associate not with the people, with whom shall I associate? If the right way prevailed in the world, there would be no need for me to change its state.” At length Confucius was recalled to Lu, in 483 B.C., but he was now in his sixty-ninth year. Only five years more remained to him. He hardly reentered public life, but devoted the time to completing his literary tasks. His son died in 482, but he bore that event with more equanimity than he did the death of his favorite disciple, Yen Hui, in the year following. His own death took place in the spring of 478. The account which we have of it is the following: Early one morning he got up; and with his hands behind him, and trailing his staff, he moved about by the door, crooning over "The great mountain must crumble, The strong beam must break, And the wise man wither away like a plant." After a little he entered the house, and sat down opposite the door. The disciple Tsze-kung, who was in attendance on him, had heard the words, and said to himself, "I am afraid the master is going to be ill." With this he hastened into the house, when Confucius told him a dream which he had had in the night, and which he thought presaged his death, adding, "No intelligent monarch arises; there is no ruler in the kingdom who will make me his master; my time has come to die." So it was. He took to his couch, and after seven days expired. Such was the death of the great sage of China. His end was not unimpressive, but it was melancholy. He uttered no prayer, and he betrayed no apprehension. "The mountain falling came to naught, and the rock was removed out of its place. So death prevailed against him, and he passed. His countenance was changed, and he was sent away." I have thus given a very condensed outline of the events of Confucius's life. Of his personal appearance, his habits, and his sayings we have abundant details in the records of his disciples. He was tall; methodical, doing everything in the proper way, time, and place. He was nice in his eating, but not a great eater. He was not a total abstainer from spiritous drink, but he never took too much. To confine myself to what they tell us of him as a teacher: They found him free from foregone conclusions, arbitrary determinations, obstinacy, and egoism; he would not talk with them about extraordinary things, feats of strength, rebellious disorder, and spiritual beings; he frequently discoursed to them about the Books of Poetry and History and the Rules of Propriety; there were three things, he said, in which the greatest caution was required fasting (as preparatory to sacrifice), going to war, and the treatment of disease; he insisted on their cultivating letters, ethics, leal-heartedness, and truthfulness; and there were three things on which he seldom dwelt - the profitable, the decrees of Heaven, and perfect virtue. He held that society was made up of five relationships those of husband and wife, of parent and child, of elder and younger brother, or generally of elders and youngers, of ruler |